Witcher 3 - Interview @ Pixelitis

Pixelitis has an interview with Konrad Tomaszkiewicz the Game Director of The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt.

Will The Witcher 3 have any ties to the novels that [Andrzej] Sapkowski has written?

Yes, of course. We always based [the games] on the Sapkowski novels and we’re using characters he mentioned in his books. And of course, we’ve got some story/plots which we want to solve in this third part, because it’s the last one. The name of the game is the “Wild Hunt.” And Sapkowski described them very well. People think that they are the wraiths from [The Witcher 2's] nightmares but actually, they are not. They are very connected with Geralt and with Yennefer right now. Geralt in the second part of [The Witcher 2]remembered that Yennefer exists; he’s the woman he’s [in love with.] And now, he’s trying to find her. That’s how the story begins. It took you to a more personal adventure in his time.

So we’ll finally discover the mystery behind Yennefer? The Witcher 2 didn’t explain too much about it, it still kept it pretty vague.

Yes, of course. It was on purpose. You know, we [wanted] to only tease the subject and now we will explain everything.

Will the console version have a different sort of user interface from the PC [version]? Will it be optimized so that the menus are easier to navigate?

You know, I think that the UI needs to be very intuitive, and very easy to navigate. And, when we reach this moment, we will move it to PC and see if this is the same. If it will be, we will leave it this way. If not, we will make a change to fit it to the PC’s needs.

Going into The Witcher 3 development, what have you learned from Witcher 2 in terms of fan feedback and things that you learned as you completed it?

We got huge feedback. First of all, we learned that the beginning of the game was too hard to get through. It was too many names, too many things going on, and people can’t learn the features [like] the combat and so on, and they were confronted with the dragon, for example, and were [getting] destroyed, and they were thinking “oh my God, this is no game for me.” This time, we created a block of the game this way that it’s a standalone quest, which in the end, pushes you into the main storyline. And it’s, you know, more calm, but also cool, and we slowly teach you how to use the mechanics, how to fight, and to introduce you to the world of The Witcher. The learning curve is better now, we don’t give you some many names to remember in the beginning, and I hope that every player will go swiftly into this world.

Uhhh… so the UI will be ported to PC from consoles? And quests and combat will be "simpler" to entice new players? Lovely for a series that started off as PC-exclusive, sent you off to multiple areas to solve quests, and had an overindulgence of nudity everywhere you turned. At least they're not throwing up a smoke screen on where their intents lie.

Well, as a comfy couch plasma TV PC gamer, I just hope PC version will support both console and PC interfaces, and not just adapted PC interface. I do not want to fight with small fonts and mouse driven interface when using gamepad.

So, how does it work with next gen consoles? Is there always a lead platform or are they very similar in architecture now? Well it sounds like the PC isn't the lead platform, that's a bit disappointing for sure considering where CDPR comes from and where their fan base is.

I can't say I'm too concerned with the UI - and they're saying they WILL change stuff if it's not natural.

As for the TW2 UI - it was indeed pretty awkward for some things, though I've seen much, much worse. I believe they tweaked it quite a bit in the patches, no? I would expect them to have learned from that.

I can't blame them for focusing on consoles to a certain extent, what with the upcoming generation.

Then again, I've never had much of a problem with a larger audience getting access to cool games, as long as the vision isn't compromised. Next gen hardware is pretty powerful - and I wouldn't expect much of a compromise for that reason.

If anything, it seems the vision for Witcher 3 is more powerful than ever. Literally, almost everything I hear about it sounds positively amazing.